Are You Stuck In A Box?

I was recently on site at a very successful company that was struggling
in the everyday process of getting paperwork done in an effective manner
and they knew it, but because they were so busy in the day to day processing
it made it very difficult to make time to think outside the box. We were
very successful in implementing a new process that produced immediate
results and gave everyone what they needed by 10:00 am in the morning.
I was able to do this because I was not stuck in their box. I was able
to observe their process from start to finish and asked a lot of questions.

You can’t just think you know how your process works, you need step
out of the box and observe all steps, understand each step and asked questions.
Sometimes you will find that people have taken it upon themselves to add
steps to the process making it inefficient and causing a delay in the
process. You also need to look for those steps that people are doing “JUST
BECAUSE”. That is where you will find the most wasted time.

When reviewing any process it is important to see if you are managing from
the 90-10 rule. What you will find is some people are focused on the 10%
and keep adding additional processes that bury people in paperwork and
unnecessary tasks. There are always going to be things that slip through
once in a while, but the less complicated the process the better.